2. Design Principles

P1. Separate intent from blockstate

The author declares meaning; the compiler derives blockstate. Two layers, meaning and blockstate, do not scale to def, themes, and multi-building, so the model is a three-layer IR with named members. See Architecture.

P2. A phase-ordered canvas

Whole-program last-wins, the “paint model”, produces order-dependent accidents, so it is dropped. Commands are sorted into implicit phases and evaluated in a fixed order, and last-wins is restricted to local overrides within one phase. See Compilation Model.

P3. A small closed vocabulary, with an escape hatch

Keep the set of semantic primitives small. The smaller the vocabulary, the more stable LLM generation is and the simpler the validator. Missing expressiveness escapes through raw directives.

P4. Relative, semantic positioning

Position by wall selectors rather than by absolute coordinates. Blocks, block entities, and entities share one selector grammar. See Syntax.

P5. The lint loop is part of the spec

The compiler is both a translator and an architectural linter. The form and granularity of error reporting are designed as first-class concerns, because precision is earned through a loop rather than through one-shot generation. See Lint.